Video games now created as you play them

Brothers Ciaran Hensel, 9, front, Joep Hensel, 11, center, and Pim Hensel, 8, play open-world games such as "Minecraft" on their computers at the Coworking Fullerton space on Wednesday. KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Joep Hensel grins as his fingers flick across the keyboard of a laptop and he shows off the virtual world he has created inside the video game “Minecraft.”

There's the spaceship he built that he calls the Falcon, and a jail that can lock you inside if you're not careful where you step. Levers open up “awesome” hidden passageways. His mom, Marieke Hensel of Fullerton, asks him about the hotel he built, but Joep quickly corrects her that it's a lab where he tests exotic materials harvested from his endless “mining” in the video game. Then he explains how to set the game up on a server so he can play online with friends.

Joep, 11, is one of millions of kids across the globe obsessed with “Minecraft.” Released in 2009 as a kind of virtual Legos, it has become a force of nature as it rolls out across every type of playing system, from Xbox to iPod. The ability to create one's own world within the game is a crucial factor in its popularity – and a sign of a major shift in the video game industry.

“Certainly ‘Minecraft' is a very unique title that has accomplished things no other game has,” said Jesse Divinich, vice president at video game research company EEDAR. “Minecraft” has sold nearly 12 million copies and spawned countless copycats. On Thursday, for example, four of the top 20 downloaded apps on Apple's App Store were “Minecraft”-inspired games. “Its success is rooted in giving players an environment for gamers to form and mold the world around them.”

The days of chasing dots around a maze, pushing Mario left-to-right across the screen, or even telling a player what to do, are long gone. Increasingly, gamers are dropped in the middle of a virtual world, and they decide how they want to play in it.

Consider what's happened just this summer:

In June, the makers of a popular line of kids' games for mobile phones, Toca Boca, released a “Minecraft”-like game called “Toca Builders” for iPhones and iPads that simplified the controls so touch-savvy toddlers can create something simple from blocks.

Disney spent three years developing its own take on a “Minecraft” experience with a build-your-own-world game called “Disney Infinity” that was released two weeks ago. You can mash together characters like Mr. Incredible and Captain Jack Sparrow and play as them together in this world you create.

For a more mature audience, “Grand Theft Auto 5” will hit shelves in mid-September, letting players do pretty much whatever they want inside a pre-made version of Southern California. The latest sequel to the immensely popular game – its 2008 predecessor reportedly shipped 6 million copies in its first week of release – vastly expands what players can do in the virtual world: hang gliding, bike riding, golfing, yoga or careening down the street in a car hitting as many virtual bystanders as possible.

The scope and detail of virtual worlds are increasing with growing processing and graphics capabilities. A new generation of game consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One, that launch this year promise to push the capabilities even further. Many of the games work offline, but hooking them up to a broadband Internet connection opens up half the fun – letting players share their worlds with others and download the creations made by others.

“We're seeing interest in the computer game industry for embracing and commercializing computer games that focus on the user-created content or user-created game play experiences,” said Walt Scacchi, research director at UC Irvine's Institute of Virtual Environments and Computer Games (formerly known as the Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds). “In ‘Grand Theft Auto' you're not trying to stimulate creativity in user-generated content so much as ‘we've built an even bigger playground.'”

In “Minecraft,” the game lets players “mine” materials from the terrain of a randomly generated virtual world and turn the material they harvest into useful building materials.

The blocks in “Minecraft” have varying characteristics akin to wood or stone or even electronics and wiring. They can be turned into a bench, a strong wall or a lever that opens a door.

From those basic building blocks flows everything from functional machines to vast recreations of imaginary kingdoms.

Players like Joep can share their creations with the entire planet. And share they do – thousands upon thousands of vast, complex, constructed worlds are shown off in YouTube videos viewed millions of times by kids seeking inspiration.

“It's teaching them things I don't even understand myself,” said Windi Eklund, Placentia resident and mother to 5-year-old and 10-year-old Minecrafters.

On a recent afternoon, four young players sat glued to laptops in a kids play area at Marieke Hensel's business in Fullerton, building their game worlds. Hudson, the younger of Eklund's two sons, called over to Joep Hensel: “Athan has a problem. He doesn't know how to place blocks.” Hudson pointed to the computer of his older brother.

Joep hopped over to explain the controls and finished the explanation with the creation of a door. “Whoosh, secret door.”

Scacchi sees a broad, multiyear evolution taking place in games like “Minecraft.”

“We're starting to see games evolve beyond just entertainment experiences toward becoming creative media,” said Scacchi, “which users can employ to tell stories, to create shared experiences, to model and simulate business processes or social events and perhaps moving into the realm of higher education, scientific research, health care.”

Brothers Ciaran Hensel, 9, front, Joep Hensel, 11, center, and Pim Hensel, 8, play open-world games such as "Minecraft" on their computers at the Coworking Fullerton space on Wednesday. KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Joep Hensel, 11, smiles as he makes a move against his brother while playing an open-world game on his computer at the Coworking Fullerton space on Wednesday. KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ciaran Hensel, 9, plays "Minecraft" on a computer at the Coworking Fullerton space on Wednesday. KATIE DEES, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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